Cerca:nu art quartet

Named after a (US) West Coast grocery store chain, The Whitefronts started out in 1982 as a quartet of art and theater students attending UCSB. The band quickly mutated into a sextet. In 1984, they moved north to establish themselves as part of the SF DIY culture. Live shows usually consisted of open jams drawing from what the band was obsessing about at the time—free jazz, The Velvet Underground, Caribbean music, improv noise—as well as their own unheralded genres that popped in and out of existence like subatomic particles. Shows with local bands like Slovenly, Camper Van Beethoven, Caroliner Rainbow, Vomit Launch, Barnacle Choir and Barbara Manning provide some context as to their eccentric position within the indie scene of the era.

In 1985, the band released their sole LP, Roast Belief, on their own Bogden label. This was an ambitious attempt to document the various ideas that were happening live. Though practically unknown today, it’s an extraordinary record—a mid-80s classic serving up eclectic derangement on a par with contemporaries like the Butthole Surfers, Meat Puppets, Sun City Girls, Tuxedomoon and Eugene Chadbourne.
The Mamo Waves LP was compiled from recordings made between 1982-1987. As with Roast Belief LP, it’s a mind-melting jumble of the genres explored by Whitefronts throughout their existence. It was originally supposed to be released by Camper Van’s Pitch-A-Tent imprint, as a couple of WF members were touring with CBV in 1987, but the release fell through the cracks when CBV was airlifted to Virgin Records in 1988. Today, it’s clear that Mamo Waves belongs to the same 1980s Californian sub-underground aesthetic that nurtured mythical 80s bands like Departmentstore Santas and Prominent Disturbance. It’s a real WTF m.o. that still sounds like the future.

WOW. Daniel O'Sullivan's transcendent new album, Eros, is one of the greatest things we've ever heard. A simply stunning song cycle of hypnotic, experimental contemporary chamber music composed for a 14-piece ensemble. Combining minimalism, complex syncopation, detailed acoustic textures, weird intervals and samurai precision, this record will elegantly blow your mind. When Daniel first sent us this, he pitched it as “Liquid Swords meets Michael Nyman”. Trust us, he wasn't wrong. A "unique hybrid orchestral music", it presents a confluence of Daniel's longstanding fixations; indeed, there's elements of Nyman, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Magma, Aaron Copland and RZA. But this is wholly O'Sullivan's. Originally commissioned for the Sonoton Music Library in Munich, Eros now receives a deluxe vinyl release courtesy of Be With Records, bringing this meticulously crafted work to a wider audience. Limited to just 500 copies for the world, these are gonna fly.

An English composer and multi-instrumentalist, Daniel O'Sullivan’s career has been marked by versatility and innovation. In addition to his work with Sonoton, he has composed extensively for the legendary KPM music library, contributing to its storied legacy of production music. As a deep virtuoso and collaborator, O'Sullivan has also played in a number of influential projects, including Ulver, Sunn O))), This Is Not This Heat, Grumbling Fur and Miracle (with Steve Moore), leaving an indelible mark on the contemporary experimental music landscape.

O’Sullivan’s first foray into classically informed chamber music, Eros is a culmination of his long-standing fixations and expansive musical influences. The album features arrangements that are as detailed as they are emotionally resonant, showcasing his unparalleled ear for intervals and mastery of counterpoint. The music brims with complex rhythmic syncopation and a sensitivity to texture and space, resulting in a soundscape that is both intoxicating and dauntingly precise.

Recorded June 2023 and February 2024, in Brussels, London and Carmarthenshire, Wales, Eros features members of Echo Collective (Neil Leiter and Margaret Hermant), Thighpaulsandra (from seminal post-industrial band Coil), and jazz pioneer Oren Marshall. Daniel's sonic weapons of choice, in his own inimitable words, were "Big Bad Drum, Pee Anne Oh, Low End Brass, Willowy Winds & Samurai Strings." You get the picture. As a cyclical suite, this is a record that really needs to be heard in its entitreity, from start to finish, to truly appreciate the genius at work here.

A jaw-dropping statement of intent, the minimalist "Golden Verses" sets the tone with its complex cue which has your neck snapping right when it feels like it needs to. Listen and you'll understand. A syncopated tangle of sharp strings, crunchy bass, drums percussion and bright piano and mallets vie for position with French horn and woodwind melody in the most compelling and unexpected ways. Quite simply, it's one of the finest album openers I've ever heard. It's followed by the atmospheric rippling minimalism of "Lyre Lyre", a gorgeous gem with shimmering chimes, bright melody, human percussion and syncopated pizzicato strings. It kinda comes on like a less-abstract Boards Of Canada, bursting with typical wonderment. The piano and string-drenched "Dolorous Stroke" effortlessly builds its warm, pastoral orchestration with flowing piano arpeggio, steadfast drums, expressive string quartet, rich low brass, woodwind and lyrical flute. Just sublime.

The insistent frenetic propulsion of "Plain Paper" is utterly beguiling, featuring a determined string motif, urgent drums and percussion, driving low brass and breathless, energetic flute. The haunting, interweaving string arpeggios that propel "Grapes Draped" presents a claustrophobic minimalism for chaos and darkness, with growling low woodwind and brass, spiky harpsichord, skittering flutes and tight drums. Up next, "Xanix Annum" is a stately minimalist waltz with expressive lyrical string quartet and delicate woodwind, anchored by drums and percussion. "Painting Rose" is a bouncy stop-start track with angular syncopated strings and a piano pulse underneath bright harpsichord and flutes. "Rotunda Garden" presents ethereal textural minimalism for landscapes and reflection with flowing string arpeggios, warm, low woodwind drones, floating choir and cymbal swells. Closing out this extraordinary side of music, the glowing, flowing minimalism of "Flowry Orb" features urgent organ, piano and woodwind arpeggios, half-time drums with shimmering cymbals, a soaring, beautiful violin solo and hypnotic vocal chant.

Side 2 opens with "Theia Mania" a determinedly off-kilter, angular track featuring low wind, brass and drum stomp in dialogue with lively string trio, woodwind and solo horn. The light, airy minimalism of "Painting Percy" is built around an interplay of rhythmic motifs for piano, low brass, bassoon, fluttering flutes, urgent strings, drums and percussion whilst "For Archetypes" is a delicate, gently syncopated chamber cue for nostalgia, nature, reflection and moments of calm, with steady piano motif, intimate woodwind and French horn, and warm, graceful strings. The urgent Ars Memoriae is a propulsive march for progress, processes and industry, underpinned by driving tuba, with determined strings, resolute drums, and vivid, expressive flute, clarinet and French horn.

The syncopated energetic minimalism of "Mirrored Seven" presents layers of melodic and cyclical piano, drums, low brass, harp, flute and strings. "Pure Ornament" follows, a slowly evolving chamber cue with flowing clarinet, string and harp arpeggio, plodding tuba and percussion, fluttering flute and graceful, lyrical solos. Stunning! Up next, "Brave Boy" moves from its tender, warm, lullaby-like intro with lyrical flute, clarinet and strings before opening into a playful backend driven by a bouncy tuba riff and syncopated piano, woodwind, string trio, and drums and percussion. Rounding out this astonishing piece, "Waxen Waned" is a warm, pastoral chamber cue with light lyrical woodwind, tender French horn and subtly pulsing string trio.

The album's title is a reference to Plato’s conception of Eros, which is more than romantic or physical desire. It is a dynamic and creative force that drives individuals to seek perfection whether in art, relationships, philosophy or the pursuit of truth. Wholly appropriate, here, we think. When asked what his influences were in making this astounding record, he answered thusly: "Non-musical: Householding, Pythagoras, Goethe, Grail romances, Hermeticism, Doctrine of Signatures (Parcelsus, Bohme, Pliny), Eric Rohmer, John Stezaker, Yasujiro Ozu. Musical: Duke Ellington (late suites), Smile-era Brian, early RZA, Wagner (Parsifal Overture), Magma, Mancini, Axelrod, YMO, Hildegard, Nyman, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Jobim (Stone Flower), Alessandro Alessandroni, Tavener, Moondog, Orthodox Music, Secular Music." That's some pretty deep shit. Makes you want to dive in, no?

Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis, and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry. Truly, Eros is a work of extraordinary depth and sophistication. It invites listeners to immerse themselves in its intricate layers, to lose themselves in its hypnotic rhythms, and to marvel at the precision of its execution. With this release, O’Sullivan reaffirms his position as one of the most inventive and uncompromising voices in contemporary music. Do. Not. Sleep.

"JUJU" drops on May 17th (WERF Records) and is programmed at Gent Jazz Festival (July 11th)



Juju continues the work done on the second album half, with the Terre Sol Four quartet: Willems' voice, drums, percussion objects, keyboards and field recordings accompanied by the saxes of Marc De Maeseneer, Vincent Brijs and John Snauwaert.Juju fits perfectly in Willems' output. Also: in the coherent oeuvre it has become, it is perhaps her most consistent release yet. It's infectious as hell, carefully crafted, packs a punch and more accessible than ever before.



Everything is connected. Not just in the grand scheme of things - politically, culturally, socially,... - but also in the colourful universe of Karen Willems. A lifelong quest for profound experiences through organizing sound led to the crucial Terre Sol-series, four tapes released in 2020. Out of that fertile well, Grichte (2022) was born. A double LP that presented Willems as an original explorer as well as a committed bandleader, it was her boldest statement to date.

While the first (solo) album halfalready received a follow-up in K A A P M I J (2023), another tape release that suggested there's still a lot of ground left to uncover, Juju continues the work done on the second album half, with the Terre Sol Four quartet: Willems' voice, drums, percussion objects, keyboards and field recordings accompanied by the saxes of Marc De Maeseneer, Vincent Brijs and John Snauwaert. It was already something to behold on Grichte, swerving from introspective exploration to expressionist riff rock and semi-Dadaist avant-garde.

On Juju, the four-piece digs even deeper and the results are utterly spellbinding. One of the many attractions of Willems' recent work is that it combines relentless artistic experimentation with a commitment to broader socio-political issues. In essence, the artist tries to set up a discussion with her surroundings, sending out musical invitations to connect and participate, reminding ourselves of responsibilities that are too easily forgotten in these hectic, self-centered times. The refugee crisis is one, ecology awareness another, and it's hard not to consider "Voor De Stranden Verdrinken" ("Before The Beaches Drown") a caustic warning. Things need to change.

As said earlier, the music on Juju remains as adventurous as before, but this time around, the playing feels even more confident, diverse and punchy. If the album opener accentuates its urgency with a throbbing pulse and reed sirens, "Tako Deli" continues with rich vocal arrangements, roaring saxes and sweeping melodies. What follows strikes with vigor and consistency: "Nuuki" is as dense as it is infectious, while "Fuzzy Williams" manages to combine Ellingtonian abundance with Swans-like preaching.

And there's more, much more. Eccentricity and playfulness ("The Woo Woo Room, Dance Back In Style", "In Open Veld") go hand in hand with smoldering exercises in tension and release ("Koortsdromen") and a ridiculously infectious call for connection in antisocial times ("Come Vai"). Guest contributions by Nabou Claerhout, Kapinga Gysel, Esther Lybeert and Filip Wauters enrich the band's sound considerably. By the time you reach album closer "When Daytime Lands", Willems takes you on a short trip through that eerie soundscape-land she previously explored.

In short: Juju fits perfectly in Willems' output. Also: in the coherent oeuvre it has become, it is perhaps her most consistent release yet. It's infectious as hell, carefully crafted, packs a punch and more accessible than ever before. It's the sound of an artist at the peak of her powers, not just expanding her range, but digging deeper with obvious glee. It's not just intriguing; it's inspiring to witness..

Joe Lovano und seine polnischen Mitstreiter vom Marcin Wasilewski Trio zeigen sich auf ihrem zweiten
gemeinsamen Album für ECM von einer besonders abenteuerlustigen Seite. Aufbauend auf den lyrischen
Stärken der vorherigen Aufnahme der Gruppe (Arctic Riff, 2020), erforscht das Quartett auf Homage
nun auch noch die Art von frei fließendem Zusammenspiel und ausgedehnten Improvisationspassagen, die
schon zu einem festen Bestandteil von Lovanos Unternehmungen mit seinem Trio Tapestry geworden sind.
Zwei lange Kompositionen und der Titeltrack „Homage“ - allesamt Originale von Lovano - bilden mit
einer Länge von jeweils über zehn Minuten das Fundament des Albums und zeigen die Musiker in ihrer
experimentierfreudigsten Form, wobei Joe häufig sein Tenorsaxophon und sein Tárogató gegen diverse
Perkussionsinstrumente tauscht. Bei „Love In The Garden“, einer Komposition des polnischen Geigenvirtuosen Zbigniew Seifert, schmückt die Gruppe die stimmungsvolle Melodie mit fließenden Harmonien aus,
die in eindringliche Rubato-Gefilde gehüllt sind. Improvisierte Miniaturen vervollständigen ein Programm,
das zeigt, dass Wasilewski und seine Trio-Kollegen die ideale Ergänzung zu Lovanos einzigartigen Improvisationslinien sind. Die schlackenlose Chemie der Gruppe wird auf Homage deutlicher denn je. Das Album
wurde von Manfred Eicher produziert.

Being one of the most popular albums in the history of the label,

Music Brokers is happy to announce the release of Jazz And Beatles in a limited-edition double LP.
The album features 24 stellar Beatles classics reinvented in jazz form that highlight the catalog of the biggest band of all time.
Gems such as “Yesterday”, “Here Comes The Sun”, “Revolu- tion” and “She Loves You” have new life with reworked versions
by many of the biggest names in the nu-jazz move- ment including Jazzystics,
Les Crossaders, The Cooltrane Quartet, Eve St. Jones and Apollinare Rossi. With stellar artwork and remastered sound,
this is another essential addition to your jazz-lounge music collection in vinyl format.

A quintessential, timeless piece of death metal
In 1997, long-running Polish death metal act VADER - currently celebrating their 40th anniversary - made an important step towards international recognition by releasing “Black To The Blind”, their third studio album, which includes live staples like ‘Carnal’ or the savage title track. Honed from playing way over 250 concerts in the mid 90’s and sharing stage with Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Morbid Angel, the quartet became true road dogs with a dedicated following up until today and perfected their intense and catchy, Slayer-meets-Morbid-Angel on steroids brand of death metal. “Black To The Blind” has been remastered and features an updated layout as well as the original cover art. A quintessential, timeless piece of death metal!

A repress of Swedish psych quartet Les Big Byrd (featuring members of Caesars, Fireside, Teddybears, etc) long sold out second album Iran Iraq IKEA - a part of the PNKSLM Recordings 10 year anniversary repress series. On the album, which this time is released on pink vinyl with alternate artwork, Les Big Byrd found a middle ground between their pop sensibilties and kraut-y space rock.

"Every night we've been listening to RATTLE. They have a stark yet deep trance percussion vibe that is both holistic and rocking." Thurston Moore
“Quietly dramatic and loudly intimate.” The Quietus
“Two drum sets. Two voices. One great idea.” MOJO
Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists. They’ve since released two long-players, 2016’s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018’s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim in the music press, and with James Acaster discussing the debut on his BBC Sounds podcast Perfect Sounds!
Rattle have honed the four songs that make up ‘Encircle’ by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. ‘Encircle’ was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales, produced and mixed by Mark Jasper, and mastered at Liminal Audio by Shaun Crook. The stunningly colourful artwork was created by Martha Glazzard, who was also responsible for Rattle’s other mesmeric covers.
‘All Burning’ opens the album, a live favourite of cyclical tumbling and evolving wordplay. ‘All Burning’ was built up gradually layer by layer with Theresa’s cumulative snare work and Katherine’s urgent calls for action: “hold your doctor, hold your daughter, hold your horses”. If ‘All Burning’ represents fire, then it’s accompanying 12-minute long track on Side 1, ‘Argot’, is informed by the air. ‘Argot’ is a song about uncertainty, with Katherine singing wordlessly across the majority of the track. “I prefer to sing wordlessly often because it feels a bit more expressive and universal” asserts Katherine. The track feels truly epic with a satisfying release that comes with the eventual introduction of the bass drum and snappy hi-hat section.

Side 2 also pairs a shorter song with a long-form composition. ‘Ritual’ is worked up from a simple snare drum pattern which becomes more and more overlapped into an elliptical form of waltz. Katherine considers ‘Ritual’ as “very earthy song - lots of low lying mist on the ground swirling around and the drums coming together to summon something”! ‘Ritual’ was inspired by a visit to the ruins of Boleskine House so multi-dimensional themes and occult practice loom large. ‘Your Move’ is a step-up gear change with the band wanting it to feel like the tape had suddenly started to spin faster, urging movement, venturing action. Clocking in at over 15 minutes, ‘Your Move’, is mesmeric and boundless, hypnotic in its minimalism of doubled-drums and almost tribal vocal cycles.
With ‘Encircle’ Rattle have grown again, these songs are alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circle’s edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight.
Rattle has performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartetand Codeine.

"Every night we've been listening to RATTLE. They have a stark yet deep trance percussion vibe that is both holistic and rocking." Thurston Moore
“Quietly dramatic and loudly intimate.” The Quietus
“Two drum sets. Two voices. One great idea.” MOJO
Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists. They’ve since released two long-players, 2016’s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018’s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim in the music press, and with James Acaster discussing the debut on his BBC Sounds podcast Perfect Sounds!
Rattle have honed the four songs that make up ‘Encircle’ by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. ‘Encircle’ was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales, produced and mixed by Mark Jasper, and mastered at Liminal Audio by Shaun Crook. The stunningly colourful artwork was created by Martha Glazzard, who was also responsible for Rattle’s other mesmeric covers.
‘All Burning’ opens the album, a live favourite of cyclical tumbling and evolving wordplay. ‘All Burning’ was built up gradually layer by layer with Theresa’s cumulative snare work and Katherine’s urgent calls for action: “hold your doctor, hold your daughter, hold your horses”. If ‘All Burning’ represents fire, then it’s accompanying 12-minute long track on Side 1, ‘Argot’, is informed by the air. ‘Argot’ is a song about uncertainty, with Katherine singing wordlessly across the majority of the track. “I prefer to sing wordlessly often because it feels a bit more expressive and universal” asserts Katherine. The track feels truly epic with a satisfying release that comes with the eventual introduction of the bass drum and snappy hi-hat section.

Side 2 also pairs a shorter song with a long-form composition. ‘Ritual’ is worked up from a simple snare drum pattern which becomes more and more overlapped into an elliptical form of waltz. Katherine considers ‘Ritual’ as “very earthy song - lots of low lying mist on the ground swirling around and the drums coming together to summon something”! ‘Ritual’ was inspired by a visit to the ruins of Boleskine House so multi-dimensional themes and occult practice loom large. ‘Your Move’ is a step-up gear change with the band wanting it to feel like the tape had suddenly started to spin faster, urging movement, venturing action. Clocking in at over 15 minutes, ‘Your Move’, is mesmeric and boundless, hypnotic in its minimalism of doubled-drums and almost tribal vocal cycles.
With ‘Encircle’ Rattle have grown again, these songs are alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circle’s edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight.
Rattle has performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartetand Codeine.

War "Funeral for Justice" der Klang der Entrüstung, so ist "Tears of Injustice" der Klang der Trauer. Mit dem neuen Album "Tears of Injustice", das am 28. Februar 2025 erscheint, hat Mdou Moctar sein Meisterwerk "Funeral for Justice" neu interpretiert. Dieses wurde vollständig neu aufgenommen und mit akustischen sowie traditionellen Instrumente arrangiert. Das Album ist die kontemplative Weiterentwicklung der Band - das ruhige Gegenstück zum intensiven Original. Im Juli 2023 war Mdou Moctar auf Tournee in den USA, als eine Militärjunta den nigrischen Präsidenten Mohamed Bazoum stürzte und ihn in der Präsidentenresidenz festsetzte. Aufgrund der geschlossenen Landesgrenzen konnten Mdou Moctar, Ahmoudou Madassane und Souleymane Ibrahim nicht zu ihren Familien zurückkehren. Obwohl bereits Pläne zur Aufnahme von Begleitmaterial zu Funeral for Justice - das zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch Monate vor der Veröffentlichung stand - existierten, gewann das Projekt plötzlich an Dringlichkeit und Tiefe. Nur zwei Tage nach Abschluss der Tour in New York City begann das Quartett im Bunker Studio in Brooklyn unter der Leitung von Toningenieur Seth Manchester mit den Aufnahmen zu Tears of Injustice. "Wir wollten unsere eigene Interpretation von 'Funeral" schaffen, die die Menschen auf eine andere Art erleben können", sagt Mikey Coltun, der in den USA lebende Bassist und Produzent der Band. "Bei unseren Konzerten experimentieren wir ständig mit den Arrangements. Nun wollten wir zeigen, dass wir diese kreative Vielfalt auch auf einem Album umsetzen können. Wenn wir ein reduziertes Set spielen, zeigt sich eine ganz neue Seite der Band - es wird zu etwas Eigenem." Sie entschieden sich, Tears gemeinsam in einem Raum aufzunehmen und die Session spontan und unstrukturiert zu gestalten. "Wir haben die Arrangements nicht im Voraus festgelegt", erinnert sich Coltun. "Wir haben einfach gespielt, das richtige Gefühl eingefangen und die Songs aufgenommen. Alles fügte sich schnell zusammen, und die Hauptaufnahmen waren in nur zwei Tagen abgeschlossen." Der hypnotische 8-Minuten-Track Imouhar besteht eigentlich aus zwei direkt hintereinander aufgenommenen Durchläufen - Moctar hörte kaum auf zu spielen, sodass die Takes nahtlos ineinander übergingen. Nach einem Monat konnte die Band schließlich nach Niger zurückkehren, und Coltun gab Madassane einen Zoom-Recorder mit. Damit nahm der Rhythmusgitarrist eine Gruppe von Tuaregs auf, die traditionelle Call-and-Response-Gesänge vortrugen, die später in den endgültigen Mix eingearbeitet wurden. Auf Funeral for Justice äußert sich die Wut über die schwierige Lage des Niger und des Tuareg-Volkes durch die Lautstärke und das Tempo der Musik. Auf Tears bewahren die Lieder dieses Gewicht, jedoch ohne elektrische Verstärkung. Sie sind von tiefer Traurigkeit durchdrungen und vermitteln das Leid eines Volkes, das in ständiger Armut, unter kolonialer Ausbeutung und politischen Umbrüchen lebt. Es ist Tuareg-Protestmusik in ihrer rohesten und essenziellsten Form. "Wenn Mdou die Texte schreibt, tut er das oft mit einer Akustikgitarre", erklärt Coltun. "Dadurch kommt man dem ursprünglichen Moment näher. Die Schwere bleibt, aber die Intensität ist auf eine eindringlichere Weise spürbar."

War "Funeral for Justice" der Klang der Entrüstung, so ist "Tears of Injustice" der Klang der Trauer. Mit dem neuen Album "Tears of Injustice", das am 28. Februar 2025 erscheint, hat Mdou Moctar sein Meisterwerk "Funeral for Justice" neu interpretiert. Dieses wurde vollständig neu aufgenommen und mit akustischen sowie traditionellen Instrumente arrangiert. Das Album ist die kontemplative Weiterentwicklung der Band - das ruhige Gegenstück zum intensiven Original. Im Juli 2023 war Mdou Moctar auf Tournee in den USA, als eine Militärjunta den nigrischen Präsidenten Mohamed Bazoum stürzte und ihn in der Präsidentenresidenz festsetzte. Aufgrund der geschlossenen Landesgrenzen konnten Mdou Moctar, Ahmoudou Madassane und Souleymane Ibrahim nicht zu ihren Familien zurückkehren. Obwohl bereits Pläne zur Aufnahme von Begleitmaterial zu Funeral for Justice - das zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch Monate vor der Veröffentlichung stand - existierten, gewann das Projekt plötzlich an Dringlichkeit und Tiefe. Nur zwei Tage nach Abschluss der Tour in New York City begann das Quartett im Bunker Studio in Brooklyn unter der Leitung von Toningenieur Seth Manchester mit den Aufnahmen zu Tears of Injustice. "Wir wollten unsere eigene Interpretation von 'Funeral" schaffen, die die Menschen auf eine andere Art erleben können", sagt Mikey Coltun, der in den USA lebende Bassist und Produzent der Band. "Bei unseren Konzerten experimentieren wir ständig mit den Arrangements. Nun wollten wir zeigen, dass wir diese kreative Vielfalt auch auf einem Album umsetzen können. Wenn wir ein reduziertes Set spielen, zeigt sich eine ganz neue Seite der Band - es wird zu etwas Eigenem." Sie entschieden sich, Tears gemeinsam in einem Raum aufzunehmen und die Session spontan und unstrukturiert zu gestalten. "Wir haben die Arrangements nicht im Voraus festgelegt", erinnert sich Coltun. "Wir haben einfach gespielt, das richtige Gefühl eingefangen und die Songs aufgenommen. Alles fügte sich schnell zusammen, und die Hauptaufnahmen waren in nur zwei Tagen abgeschlossen." Der hypnotische 8-Minuten-Track Imouhar besteht eigentlich aus zwei direkt hintereinander aufgenommenen Durchläufen - Moctar hörte kaum auf zu spielen, sodass die Takes nahtlos ineinander übergingen. Nach einem Monat konnte die Band schließlich nach Niger zurückkehren, und Coltun gab Madassane einen Zoom-Recorder mit. Damit nahm der Rhythmusgitarrist eine Gruppe von Tuaregs auf, die traditionelle Call-and-Response-Gesänge vortrugen, die später in den endgültigen Mix eingearbeitet wurden. Auf Funeral for Justice äußert sich die Wut über die schwierige Lage des Niger und des Tuareg-Volkes durch die Lautstärke und das Tempo der Musik. Auf Tears bewahren die Lieder dieses Gewicht, jedoch ohne elektrische Verstärkung. Sie sind von tiefer Traurigkeit durchdrungen und vermitteln das Leid eines Volkes, das in ständiger Armut, unter kolonialer Ausbeutung und politischen Umbrüchen lebt. Es ist Tuareg-Protestmusik in ihrer rohesten und essenziellsten Form. "Wenn Mdou die Texte schreibt, tut er das oft mit einer Akustikgitarre", erklärt Coltun. "Dadurch kommt man dem ursprünglichen Moment näher. Die Schwere bleibt, aber die Intensität ist auf eine eindringlichere Weise spürbar."

Far Out Recordings proudly presents Argentinian guitarist Agustín Pereyra Lucena’s 1980 album La Rana. Recorded in Oslo, La Rana features Agustín’s stunning takes on compositions by Ivan Lins, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Agustín’s friend and musical hero Baden Powell. In addition to these, and a number of Agustín’s own compositions including the fifteen-minute masterpiece “Encuentro De Sombras”, the album’s title track is an idiosyncratic version of Joao Donato’s “A Rã” (Eng: The Frog/ Esp: La Rana) from his 1973 album Quem É Quem.

Forming the rest of the quartet are two fellow Argentinians who were also Agustin’s bandmates from the group Candeias: bassist and multi-instrumentalist Guillermo Reuter and flautist Ruben Izarrualde; with Norweigan drummer Finn Sletten on drums and percussion.

Throughout La Rana we hear not only Agustín’s fabled guitar playing, which ascended him to share stages with the likes of Vinicius de Moraes, Dorival Cayymi, Toquinho, Maria Bethania, Chico Buarque and Quarteto Em Cy, but also his talent as a vocalist. He also provided the heartening illustration for the cover art, which perfectly fits the cordial, inviting tone of the music. Inspired in equal measure by South American rhythms and Norweigan glaciers, mountains and waterfalls, La Rana is filled with the warmth, humility and sincerity of a man seizing a joyful moment in life through music.

Seit sie die Wiener Musikszene mit ihrem Debüt ,Trouble" (2022) und dem Nachfolger-Album ,Lightning Trails" (2023) im Sturm erobert haben, etablierten sich die Jangle-Pop-Maestros Laundromat Chicks in jenem seltenen musikalischen Terrain, in der sich Humor, Übermut und Verletzlichkeit überschneiden. Von pubertären Power-Pop-Hymnen bis hin zu knackigem Jangle-Pop sind Laundromat Chicks die Art von Band, die einen an alle Lieblingsbands auf einmal erinnert. Auf ihrem Album ,Sometimes Possessed" (Siluh Records) erweitert die Band ihre Soundpalette. Mastermind Tobias Hammermüller führt sein Songwriting in neue Bahnen, indem die gewohnt schlagfertigen Gitarrenhymnen mit abstrakteren, sanfter klingendenmusikalischen Ideen abwechseln. Das Quartett, bestehend neben Hammermüller (Gesang/Gitarre) aus Theresa Strohmer (Gitarre/Gesang), Felix Schnabl (Schlagzeug) und Lena Pöttinger (Bass), war von Anfang an sehr produktiv - sowohl bei Laundromat Chicks als auch bei anderen Projekten. So spielen Strohmer und Pöttinger auch in der Garage-Pop-Band Topsy Turvy, während Schnabl sein eigenes 60er-Jahre-Garage-Punk-Projekt Salamirecorder hat und in der Psychrock-Gruppe Telebrains Schlagzeug spielt und singt. Laundromat Chicks' erste beiden Veröffentlichungen bei Siluh Records, sind eine Fundgrube an zu entdeckenden Gitarrenpops, z.B. die Single ,You're on the Line" ist so witzig undeindringlich wie jede pubertäre Powerpop-Hymne diesseits von Buzzcocks und The Undertones, während ,Nobody Believes Me" den eisigen Fatalismus von Joy Division mit dem knackigen Jangle von The Babies and Girls verbindet. Es steht außer Frage, dass die Laundromat Chicks in nur 20 Minuten eine Band sein können, die dich an alle deine Lieblingsbands auf einmal erinnert, aber auch gleichzeitig in neue, aufregende Gefilde entführen kann. Auf Sometimes Possessed erweitert diese speziellen Gebiete erheblich: Die bislang gewohnten 20 Minuten dehnen sich nun zu einem inspirierten 30-minütigen Fiebertraum aus. Damit sich die Gefühle entfalten konnten, musste der Startpunkt des Albums irgendwo aus einem abgelegenen bzw. fast vergessenen Fundus kommen. Das Ergebnis ist Laundromat Chicks' hitzeverzerrte Interpretation der von Ray Davies geschriebenen 60ties Ballade ,This Strange Effect", ein schwindelerregendes Duett, dargeboten von Sänger Hammermüller mit Gitarristin Theresa Strohmer als Duett.

Berlin bassist, composer, studio musician and sought-after sideman Thomas Stieger releases his solo debut album 'Choices'. Stieger's first album as a bandleader features guest appearances by well-known musicians such as trumpeter Randy Brecker, bassists Will Lee and Tim Lefebvre, drummer Wolfgang Haffner, as well as rising stars singer Alma Naidu and keyboardist Simon Oslender.
With his ambitious solo debut, Thomas Stieger, who has already played on over 100 recordings in various styles and released two albums as a member of the prog-fusion-cinematic-jazz band Marriage Material, shows his creative, very personal side.

'Choices' combines melodic groove tracks such as "Noemi's Song" and "Hissing the Flag" with the African-influenced "Chez Aly". The ballad "Resistance", the ode "Glimmer of Hope", the march "The Night You Changed Your Mind" and the title track are provided with string quartet arrangements. Stieger also jams to electro-dance grooves in "Night Ride", creates an atmospheric mood in "Lavender Skies" and closes with the beautiful "Ocean", sung by Alma Naidu.

Thomas started playing guitar at the age of ten and switched to bass at 15. He played in numerous bands and started his own jazz fusion projects. In addition to his work with the band Marriage Material, which he co-founded in 2018, Stieger played in various groups led by drummer Wolfgang Haffner and worked with many well-known artists and orchestras, including Gregory Porter, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Quasthoff and Sarah Connor.

Scions are a new innovative experimental ensemble. The group features members from the award-winning minimalist chamber-jazz quartet New Hermitage, the Polaris-nominated drone-hymn duo Joyful Joyful, and the acclaimed producer and composer Michael Cloud Duguay. Their collaboration began at the Sappyfest music festival in Sackville, New Brunswick, in August 2022. During this event, New Hermitage and Joyful Joyful connected for the first time and teamed up with Duguay for a spontaneous improvisational performance based on his song writing. The enthusiastic response, capped by a standing ovation, solidified the ensemble's decision to pursue the project further, with Duguay deftly shifting from front-person to producer and musical director. After being awarded a Canada Council project grant in early 2023 the group took residence in Hotel Wolfe Island on Wolfe Island. Over a week the seven core members lived and worked together, culling material from sunrise improv sessions and collaboratively shaping it into a unique body of work that would later become To Cry Out In The Wilderness. In June 2023, the ensemble, now joined by double bassist Gabriella Ciurcovich, recorded their debut album in Halifax’s north end. Led by Duguay’s distinctive approach to site-specific production, the recording took place in the sanctuary of St. George’s Round Church, with engineering by Jake Nicoll, known for his sustainable recording methods using a solar-powered, mobile control room. The resulting album, To Cry Out In The Wilderness, finds the ensemble expertly exploring and powerfully combining their skills in jazz, devotional, classical, drone, folk, ambient, metal, improvisational, minimalist and avant-garde music. The project culminated in a week of production, with contributions from numerous artists from Halifax’s creative music community. Scions then presented their work live, performing on the opening night of Halifax’s Everyseeker festival of experimental music, where they shared the spotlight with the renowned Sun Ra Arkestra. Speaking on the narrative of To Cry Out In The Wilderness vocalist and lyricist Cormac Culkeen said: "When we came together to make this body of work, we started from a narrative seed; a post-apocalyptic humanity relearning and recreating itself, after a total ecological collapse." Speaking on "Fight Song" they add, "“Fight Song” became the song we thought the last of us might need. It is sung for an imagined last stand. It is a rallying cry to wholeheartedly fight a losing battle. So it is for us now, in this time of great dismay and unease. The axe must be disobeyed.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of bob sinclar"s iconic label, Yellow Productions, step into the catchy world of the french touch with an exceptional and limited boxset with 3 LP vinyl records plus a poster. Discover hits, unreleased nuggets and rare tracks ranging from house to trip-hop, jazz and hip-hop. Discover some of the biggest names on the electronic music scene : Like Dimitri From Paris, Dj Gregory, Kid Loco, Martin Solveig and David Guetta!

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

An extremely prolific artist, whose work encompasses composition, opera, theatre, radio plays, film or performance, Ergo Phizmiz returns in due time to the Discrepant fold long after his 'Two Quartets' and 'Disco Carousel' - under his given DW Robertson name - albums. A purveyor of the Creative Commons rights, Phizmiz has been deploying much of his work on the ever expanding Free Music Archive directed by WFMU since the early 2000's, creating a sprawling and defiant body of work that defies given and stale notions of sound hierarchies, history and copyright through a process that comprises collage, sampling, reappropriation, songwriting, covers and pretty much any available media with a playful and thoughtful approach.
For this new Discrepant entry, Phizmiz goes back in time to push into the future a number of pieces recorded more than two decades ago creating this perpetual motion outside a linear chronologic progression. Anticipating by almost 20 years the memefication of ASMR videos, 'Selected Ambient & ASMR Works 2001-2003' - itself a pun on the AFX classics - embraces the ambient tag not at its functional face value, but instead as a means to the "evocation of imaginary spaces, and correspondingly the invention of their sonic environments". Collecting recordings from a myriad of instruments - violin, xylophone, banjo, kora, found percussion and so on...-, shortwave radio and field recordings to create loops with different lengths that play with and/or against themselves continuously in a process "(dis)conjunction" not far removed from Feldman's 'Why Patterns?' or hip-hop's sampledelia. A free-floating temporal space that collapses the flashing images of Angelfire pages unto Web 2.0 sense of displacement.

Screaming suburban blues straight from the pages of HeartattaCk magazine, Current exploded out of the early-’90s Midwestern emo scene in a fit of D.C. hardcore-inspired rage. Spread across three LPs, Yesterday’s Tomorrow Is Not Today compiles the quartet’s lone album, two EPs, split 7”s with Indian Summer and Chino Horde, miscellaneous compilation debris, and nine previously unissued alternates, including the infamous KLXU radio show. Remixed and mastered from the original tapes, Current’s complete discography is annotated in Leor Galil’s exhaustive survey, illustrated with period photos, flyers, and cut-n-paste sleeve art across 24 pages.

Lonnie Smith (1942 – 2021), was an American jazz organist. He was part of several vocal ensembles in the 1950s, includ- ing the Teen Kings which included Grover Washington Jr. Art Kubera, the owner of a local music store, gave Smith his first organ, a Hammond B3. Smith’s affinity for R&B mixed with his own personal style as he became active in the local music scene. In 1965 he met guitarist George Benson. The two con- nected on a personal level and formed the George Benson Quartet, featuring Lonnie Smith, in 1966. After two albums under Benson’s leadership, Smith recorded his first solo al- bum ‘Finger Lickin’ Good (Soul Organ)’ with George Benson and Melvin Sparks on guitar, Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax, and Marion Booker on drums. This combination remained stable for the next five years. After recording several albums with Benson, Smith became a solo recording artist and sub- sequently recorded over 30 albums under his own name.
Numerous prominent jazz artists joined Smith on his albums
and in his live performances, including Lee Morgan, David “Fathead” Newman, King Curtis, Blue Mitchell, and Joe Lova- no. The album ‘Finger Lickin’ Good (Soul Organ)’ showcases Lonnie Smith’s virtuosity and his innovative approach on the organ, with tracks that feature intricate solos and groovy rhythms so typical of the soul jazz and jazz funk genres. Lon- nie Smith was named 9 times “the best organist of the year” by the Jazz Journalists Association.

This release comes as a limited edition of 750 copies on smoke coloured vinyl.

Having established a legacy as one of the most highly regarded contemporary UK Jazz musicians of the past decade, Newham-based pianist Alfa Mist’s discography boasts such stone cold classics as ‘Antiphon’ ‘Bring Backs’ and ‘Nocturne’. Alfa is yet to be boxed into a specific genre as his music spans everything from hip-hop beat-making to producing for artists such as rapper Loyle Carner, composing neo-classical works for the London Contemporary Orchestra, and reworking tracks from composer Ólafur Arnalds and pioneering jazz label Blue Note, not to mention his collaborations with the likes of Jordan Rakei, Tom Misch and drummer Richard Spaven, producer Lester Duval and singer Emmavie.

Now unveiling his next offering, Alfa revisits his stellar 2024 performance with Manchester’s extraordinary string outfit Amika Quartet at heralded venue Kings Place (London), capturing the magic of the evening within this awe-inspiring live album. Featuring a handful of brand new, never-before-heard tracks (alongside a number of expansions of previous releases), ‘Recurring’ sees Alfa drawing inspiration from classic live Jazz recordings, capturing a unique moment in time that can never be replicated or replayed. Creating an authentic, unpolished and electric feel, feeding his long-running mission of real-time musical expressions that evolve with each performance. On the genesis of the record, Alfa says: ‘Some of my favourite albums are captured live performances. I came home from a long year of touring and decided to work on some music for Amika Quartet who I've been working with for years on a few different shows and projects. A lot of the music I release is recorded in whole takes, I think there's something nice about doing the best you can with the moments you have. I wanted to take that one step further by recording it as a live show and seeing what happens.'’

Due for release via Alfa’s own Sekito Records imprint, a potent, raw and spontaneous energy permeates the release. Marking his first project with a full string arrangement, the iconic Kings Place venue’s reputation for spectacular acoustics, as well as intimate setting made an ideal location for the live recording. The decision to record in a live venue rather than a studio was driven by Alfa’s desire to push beyond his comfort zone and explore new creative territories. On first single ‘Checkpoint’, Alfa also takes to the microphone, breaking away from his usual introspective lyrical style to make comments on the current state of the world. He explains: “ 'I've written lyrics before but this is the first time I've ever tried to write a poem and it ended up being about the double standards of violence we see in this world everyday”. This offering is a testament to Alfa’s continuous evolution as an artist, blending his introspective lyric with broader societal observations, all while maintaining the improvisational spirit of jazz.

Gerry Mulligan mit der Night Lights Band auf Europatournee 1959. Das großartige Quartett besteht aus Gerry Mulligan am Baritonsaxophon und Klavier, Art Farmer an der Trompete, Bill Crow am Bass und Dave Bailey am Schlagzeug. Die Band war auf dem Höhepunkt ihres Könnens, und diese atemberaubenden Aufnahmen trugen entscheidend dazu bei, Mulligans Band als eine der angesagtesten Bands jener Zeit zu bestätigen.

In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Swedish National Radio Archive und dem Gerry Mulligan Estate ist es uns gelungen, die Original-Masterbänder im Tresor von Sveriges Radio ausfindig zu machen und sie Kevin Gray zur Verfügung zu stellen, der mit seiner gewohnten Magie beim Mastering und Editing diesen bisher unveröffentlichten Aufnahmen eine unglaubliche klangliche Bandbreite verliehen hat. Das neu gestaltete Cover wurde von Two To Tango entworfen, die regelmäßig mit New Land zusammenarbeiten, und bietet einen großartigen modernistischen Look.

Hergestellt bei Pallas und gedruckt auf 180g Vinyl im Reverse-Board-Sleeve, ist dies eine wichtige Ergänzung für jede Sammlung. Der Baritonsaxophonist Gerry Mulligan war eine wahre Ikone des Jazz und von den 1950er Jahren bis zu seinem Tod 1996 eine der herausragenden Persönlichkeiten der Westcoast-Szene. Mulligan, der vom Downbeat Magazine 42 Jahre in Folge zur Nummer eins auf seinem Instrument gewählt wurde, war einer der wichtigsten Musiker seiner Zeit und ein Aushängeschild, das den Sound des Jazz mitgeprägt hat. Gerry Mulligan spielte sowohl in der Miles Davis Formation der Birth Of The Cool-Ära als auch im pianolosen Quartett mit Chet Baker und war immer an vorderster Front, wenn es darum ging, was in Amerikas einzig wahrer Kunstform angesagt war und ist.

Mit The Hard Quartet hat sich eine Band zusammengetan, der man mit Blick auf ihre Mitglieder wohl den ein oder anderen Superlativ zuschreiben kann. Immerhin tummeln sich hier mit Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly und Jim White vier Musiker und Songwriter, die mit prägenden Größen des Indierocks assoziiert werden: Pavement, Chavez, Ty Segall, The Cairo Gang, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Guided By Voices, Cat Power, Dirty Three und Bill Callahan sind nur ein Bruchteil der musikalischen Institutionen, bei denen die vier ihre Finger (und Stimmen) im Spiel haben. Über das selbstbetitelte Debüt von The Hard Quartet wird m Netz schon seit Bekanntwerden der Gründung der Band angeregt spekuliert: "Es ist einfach ein vertrauensvolles Umfeld, in dem alle bereit sind zu sagen: Komm wir werfen unseren ganzen Kram in einen Topf und machen daraus etwas Größeres", so die Band dazu. Dass es trotz der getrennten musikalischen Biographien so gut läuft, ist aber sicher auch der Tatsache zu verdanken, dass sich die Wege der Vier schon zuvor immer wieder gekreuzt hatten. "Ich habe eine geradezu vorzeitliche Geschichte mit Stephen und Jim", so Matt Sweeney. "Nun, zumindest reicht sie bis in die Neunziger. In jüngerer Vergangenheit war es dann Emmett, der einen wirklich tiefen Eindruck bei mir hinterlassen hat. So sehr, dass es die Art verändert hat, wie ich übers Spielen denke." Das Album vereint die Stärken von Malkmus, Sweeney, Kelly und White, oszilliert zwischen sonnigem Slacker-Rock und Noise-Experimenten und dürfte alle mit einem Faible für die goldene Ära des US-Indierock begeistern.

Mit The Hard Quartet hat sich eine Band zusammengetan, der man mit Blick auf ihre Mitglieder wohl den ein oder anderen Superlativ zuschreiben kann. Immerhin tummeln sich hier mit Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly und Jim White vier Musiker und Songwriter, die mit prägenden Größen des Indierocks assoziiert werden: Pavement, Chavez, Ty Segall, The Cairo Gang, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Guided By Voices, Cat Power, Dirty Three und Bill Callahan sind nur ein Bruchteil der musikalischen Institutionen, bei denen die vier ihre Finger (und Stimmen) im Spiel haben. Über das selbstbetitelte Debüt von The Hard Quartet wird m Netz schon seit Bekanntwerden der Gründung der Band angeregt spekuliert: "Es ist einfach ein vertrauensvolles Umfeld, in dem alle bereit sind zu sagen: Komm wir werfen unseren ganzen Kram in einen Topf und machen daraus etwas Größeres", so die Band dazu. Dass es trotz der getrennten musikalischen Biographien so gut läuft, ist aber sicher auch der Tatsache zu verdanken, dass sich die Wege der Vier schon zuvor immer wieder gekreuzt hatten. "Ich habe eine geradezu vorzeitliche Geschichte mit Stephen und Jim", so Matt Sweeney. "Nun, zumindest reicht sie bis in die Neunziger. In jüngerer Vergangenheit war es dann Emmett, der einen wirklich tiefen Eindruck bei mir hinterlassen hat. So sehr, dass es die Art verändert hat, wie ich übers Spielen denke." Das Album vereint die Stärken von Malkmus, Sweeney, Kelly und White, oszilliert zwischen sonnigem Slacker-Rock und Noise-Experimenten und dürfte alle mit einem Faible für die goldene Ära des US-Indierock begeistern.

Die meisten Bands schreiben Songs über Alltagserlebnisse, Liebesgeschichten, Gedanken zur Welt. Public Service Broadcasting sind anders. Das Quartett aus London taucht tief in die Archive ein und macht aus historischen Begebenheiten packende Konzeptalben. Mit Samples aus alten Nachrichtenfilmen, Archiv- und Propagandamaterial formt die Band packende Geschichten, getragen von cineastischen, meist instrumentalen Rock-, Elektro- und Orchesterklängen.

Dies gilt auch für das neue Album: "The Last Flight" handelt von der letzten Reise der US-Flugpionierin Amelia Earhart, die mit nur 25 Jahren begann, eine Reihe von Rekorden aufzustellen: Sie überquerte als erste Frau im Alleinflug den Atlantik und Pazifik, ihr gelangen mehrere Geschwindigkeits- und Streckenrekorde. Doch ihr Plan, als erste Frau die Welt am Äquator zu umrunden, ging nicht auf. Sie überquerte Amerika, Afrika, den Nahen Osten und Asien, erreichte aber nie die letzte Zwischenstation vor der finalen Pazifik-Etappe, die Howlandinsel. Die bis dahin grösste Suchaktion der Luftfahrtgeschichte mit 4 Flugzeugen und 8 Kriegsschiffen blieb erfolglos. Stattdessen stieg Amelia Earhart in mythische Höhen auf, die nur den mutigsten Abenteurern vorbehalten sind.

Songschreiber J. Willgoose, Esq. war vom "Mythos Earhart" fasziniert: "Ich wollte eine Geschichte mit einer Frau im Mittelpunkt erzählen, weil ein überwältigender Teil des Archivmaterials, zu dem wir Zugang haben, männlich geprägt ist." Aufgenommen im Londoner Bandstudio, mit einem Tag für die Streicher des London Contemporary Orchestra in The Church, sind auf "The Last Flight" u.a. Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) an der Eno-artigen Pedal-Steel-Gitarre, die Berliner Stimmen Andreya Casablanca (Gurr)und EERA, sowie Kate Stables (This Is The Kit) zu hören.

Die Zuhörer mögen überrascht sein, dass das Album keine originalen Zeugenaussagen aus erster Hand enthält, sondern neu aufgenommene Dialoge von Schauspielern, darunter Kate Graham, die Amelia vorlas. Diese wurden behutsam bearbeitet, um ihnen Klangeigenschaften und Verzerrungen der 1930er Jahre zu verleihen. Als Ausgangspunkt dienten Earharts Aufzeichnungen aus erster Hand, darunter "Last Flight" von 1937, sowie die Biografie "East To The Dawn" von Susan Butler.

Clear Vinyl

Die meisten Bands schreiben Songs über Alltagserlebnisse, Liebesgeschichten, Gedanken zur Welt. Public Service Broadcasting sind anders. Das Quartett aus London taucht tief in die Archive ein und macht aus historischen Begebenheiten packende Konzeptalben. Mit Samples aus alten Nachrichtenfilmen, Archiv- und Propagandamaterial formt die Band packende Geschichten, getragen von cineastischen, meist instrumentalen Rock-, Elektro- und Orchesterklängen.

Dies gilt auch für das neue Album: "The Last Flight" handelt von der letzten Reise der US-Flugpionierin Amelia Earhart, die mit nur 25 Jahren begann, eine Reihe von Rekorden aufzustellen: Sie überquerte als erste Frau im Alleinflug den Atlantik und Pazifik, ihr gelangen mehrere Geschwindigkeits- und Streckenrekorde. Doch ihr Plan, als erste Frau die Welt am Äquator zu umrunden, ging nicht auf. Sie überquerte Amerika, Afrika, den Nahen Osten und Asien, erreichte aber nie die letzte Zwischenstation vor der finalen Pazifik-Etappe, die Howlandinsel. Die bis dahin grösste Suchaktion der Luftfahrtgeschichte mit 4 Flugzeugen und 8 Kriegsschiffen blieb erfolglos. Stattdessen stieg Amelia Earhart in mythische Höhen auf, die nur den mutigsten Abenteurern vorbehalten sind.

Songschreiber J. Willgoose, Esq. war vom "Mythos Earhart" fasziniert: "Ich wollte eine Geschichte mit einer Frau im Mittelpunkt erzählen, weil ein überwältigender Teil des Archivmaterials, zu dem wir Zugang haben, männlich geprägt ist." Aufgenommen im Londoner Bandstudio, mit einem Tag für die Streicher des London Contemporary Orchestra in The Church, sind auf "The Last Flight" u.a. Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) an der Eno-artigen Pedal-Steel-Gitarre, die Berliner Stimmen Andreya Casablanca (Gurr)und EERA, sowie Kate Stables (This Is The Kit) zu hören.

Die Zuhörer mögen überrascht sein, dass das Album keine originalen Zeugenaussagen aus erster Hand enthält, sondern neu aufgenommene Dialoge von Schauspielern, darunter Kate Graham, die Amelia vorlas. Diese wurden behutsam bearbeitet, um ihnen Klangeigenschaften und Verzerrungen der 1930er Jahre zu verleihen. Als Ausgangspunkt dienten Earharts Aufzeichnungen aus erster Hand, darunter "Last Flight" von 1937, sowie die Biografie "East To The Dawn" von Susan Butler.

Dawson’s latest offering, The Tinnitus Chorus, is an album of wide-eyed collaborations. He is joined by an inspired cast of revered friends and kindred strangers including Suso Saiz, M. Sage (Fuubutsushi), Eli Winter, K. Freund, (Trouble Books / Lemon Quartet), Dasom Baek, Lina Langendorf (Langendorf United), Vumbi Dekula, Jairus Sharif, Yutaka Hirasaka, and his bandmates in Peace Flag Ensemble. The collection is bookended by two pieces with Michael Grigoni. From birdsong and decaying tape to Western sprawl, each of Dawson’s previous solo records have moved in a singular direction but here he approaches things through a kaleidoscopic lens. While his weathered ambient sketches serve as a through line, they are woven with all manner of instrumentation from clarinet and modular synth to steel guitars and flugelhorn. Improvised Congolese guitar nuzzles next to American experimental folk. Handmade electronics give way to spiritual sax. M. Sage contributes something referred to as a “mystic music box”. The result is a strange and beautiful journey that feels lost between genres and yet wholly unified. Dawson reflects on the genesis of album with a smirk and a shrug. He has been marred by ear troubles in recent years and had been struggling to complete an album of solo material. The clicks, ringing tones, and hiss in his ears had been drowning out the ringing tones, clicks, and hiss in his studio. When he reached out to We Are Busy Bodies to provide an update on the record he was met with an unsuspecting proposal that perhaps he shift focus to an album of collaborations. The truth is he had been ruminating on the idea for years and the nudge from WABB proved to be the motivation he needed to shelve his insecurities and invite artists he admires to join him for The Tinnitus Chorus.

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

It’s abundantly clear from the first bars of their 5th studio album Through Other Reflection, that this is, and could only ever be, The Soundcarriers. From the enchanting vocal duets of folk-bidden Chanteuses Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway; to the precise bass lines of Paul Isherwood and the limber, jazz-cool, Hal Blaine-esque drums of his his co-songwriter Adam Cann; from the fairy-like flutes, 60s-garage guitars and organ sounds pilfered from the archives of exotica - listening to the Soundcarriers resembles a rediscovery of all the most prized, esoteric corners of the 1960s, all bundled up, warped and refracted through the quartet’s astutely modern cultural lens. Channelling Tropicalia, Middle Eastern psychedelic Jazz/Funk, The French Library sounds of Nino Nardini, and a whole host of lavish obscurites beside, Through Other Reflection delivers another sonic adventure from one of the most unique and distinctive voices of British Psychedelia. After an 8 year wait for their album 4 - 2022’s Wilds - it thankfully didn’t take so long for the follow-up this time round. In many ways, this feels like a companion to Wilds; recording again at their Nottingham warehouse studio, Through Other Reflection retains that same organic glow, all the passions and imperfections of a tightly clipped unit jamming out these living, breathing pop-art nuggets as if straight onto the acetate.”We wanted to keep an air of spontaneity with this album and not get too bogged with the recording process”, explains Cann, “It was more a case of getting the songs as tightly written and arranged as possible first so we could get them down quickly in the studio. It always takes longer than you think” Less packed with strident pop hooks as its predecessor however, the music of Through… has been given extra licence to breathe, stretch out, and wander more uncharted terrains. While gleaming psych-pop of tracks like ‘The City Was’, or ‘Already Over’ confidently carry on from where they left off, from the album’s 2nd track ‘Always’, the trip becomes a little less predictable. Starting out as a smoky Procol Harum-meets-French-Psych organ ballad, the music drifts, as if of its own accord into an eerie, garage trance that lingers, cycles, and hypnotises, growing ever stranger, reaching ever-further away from its point of conception. And almost every track on Through Other Reflections holds that outer-body moment, where the band fix themselves on a limber, lysergic groove, lose all grip on time and reality, and melt themselves away into a liquid state of blind euphoria. There are sequences on this record that feel more like rituals than songs, built upon a single hypnotic rhythm which, like the centre of a vortex, pulling everything under its beatific command. Take the finale to ‘What We Found’ for instance, sounding like a ghostly march across the psychedelic moors, or ‘Feel The Way’, where a single athletic drum-loop rises and rises, growing ever more urgent and suspenseful underneath its frantic harpsichords and rasping flutes. Full of such rich stylisms as these, The Soundcarriers showcase themselves as abstract storytellers par excellence by virtue of their textures and arrangements alone. Resembling Romantic composer Maurice Ravel, but if he had just a four-piece rock band at his disposal, Through Other Reflects is rich with detail; there’s shakers, rattles, clarinets, booming drums; there’s synthesiser swarms, chiming xylophones, vintage organs and experimental Cluster & Eno-esque ambiences. Within all this nuance the music flows like some undisclosed narrative swathed in a magnetic secrecy. “It almost comes across like a story in some ways”, says Cann of the album, “the music is quite sectional with elements of exotica and cinematic type layers, it's a good balance of grooves, tunes and weirdness”. No more is this “epic cinematic feel” heard more proudly than on short instrumental ‘Sonya’s Lament” - its innate, hauntological atmospheres befitting a Peter Strickland soundtrack, or the classics of Lex Baxter, the so-called ‘Founder of Exotica’ himself. On the other hand, providing a greasier undercurrent to all these bucolic sounds is a leaning towards a more “direct” lyricism referencing more “external concerns. Laying down the first tracks for the album in the wintry gloom of pre-lockdown 2020, and drawing inspiration from time spent in Berlin, Through Other Reflections returns to some of the post-apocalyptic futurism explored in 2014’s Entropicalia - a loose concept album inspired by J.G Ballard’s The Drowned World. “The songs explore a disillusionment with the way things are going particularly after 40 years of neoliberalism”, says Cann, “They follow that folk-song tradition of wanting to escape to an imagined time, but here it’s more urban than pastoral. The first couple of ideas I came up with when doing some music in Berlin and had some time to wander aimlessly. And think the atmosphere seeped in, particularly on The City Was and Already Over. He continues, “One aspect of the title, ‘Through Other Reflections’ is about synthesis and layers of influence. How things can be filtered through other things and change the perspective. This is something you get in cities as well.” Though, as with everything The Soundcarriers make, “It can mean anything. It also just sounds kind of cool.”

Over 10 years ago, Leon Michels released his first full length record, Sounding Out The City. It was Michels' first full length record under the moniker El Michels Affair. At the time, the budding retro soul scene consisted of mostly organ quartets a la The Meters and of course, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings were in the early days of their ascent to world domination. Leon Michels, who was 18 when recording Sounding Out The City began, had just released Thunder Chicken, the first record by his high school band The Mighty Imperials. At the time of SOTC, Michels was just discovering early rocksteady, afrobeat, and 60's garage rock, which inevitably crept its way into the songwriting. He purchased a Tascam 388, an 80's 1/4" reel to reel 8 track intended for home recordings, and began recording music in a 10x10 box with no windows that also doubled as his childhood bedroom. Along with fellow Mighty Imperials Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, and Sean Solomon, and Michael Leonhart, Thomas Brenneck, and some of the musicians from The Dap Kings, Michels recorded the LP over a two year period. Upon it's release, it received some rave reviews and the small deep funk community ate it up, but due to the lack luster promotion and distribution the rest of the world was slow to catch on to the instrumental gems featured on SOTC, which Michels appropriately labelled as "cinematic soul". However, in 2005 it found it's way into the hands of the people who were organizing a series of concerts for Scion that paired bands with MC's. El Michels Affair was contacted about playing one show with Raekwon The Chef of Wu Tang Clan fame. The show was such a success it led to a tour, and then to another set of concerts that featured multiple members of the Wu-Tang Clan. This eventually led to the release of El Michels Affair's second record, "Enter the 37th Chamber" which introduced them to a much larger audience and has been their most successful release to date. Michels has since gone on to produce and co-produce numerous records for powerhouse soul artists like Lee Fields. He shares songwriting credits with Adele, Jay-Z, Ghostface Killah, Aloe Blacc, and has played on records by Ray LaMontagne, Lana Del Rey, The Black Keys and Dr. John.

LIMITED EDITION SPLATTER VINYL WITH NEW ARTWORK
For over 15 years, Zu’s modus operandi of straddling and abusing musical genres has resulted in over fifteen unique album releases across labels such as Ipecac, Atavistic and Headz (Japan). Their experimental amalgam of metal, math, no-wave, noise and electronics, led acclaimed composer John Zorn to describe their sound as “a powerful and expressive music that totally blows away what most bands do these days”.

In the running for the title of “the world’s hardest working band,” Zu have performed over 1000 shows throughout Europe, US, Canada, Asia, Russia, Mexico and even Africa, touring with the like of Mike Patton (as the Zu/Patton quartet), also sharing the stage with Faith No More, Fantômas, The Melvins, Lightning Bolt, Sonic Youth, The Ex, and countless others. They have also collaborated with a vast number of musicians including Mike Patton, The Melvins, Dälek, Jim O’ Rourke, FM Einheit (Einsturzende Neubauten), Peter Brötzmann, Nobukazu Takemura, Eugene Robinson (Oxbow), Steve MacKay (The Stooges), The Ex, Thurston Moore, Stephen O Malley, Damo Suzuki (Can), Mats Gustafsson, NoMeansNo, Joe Lally (Fugazi).

CARBONIFEROUS is their masterpiece, originally released on Ipecac in 2009, it includes collaborations with Mike Patton, King Buzzo, Giulio Ragno Favero.

Returning to Damian Lazarus’ renowned label for their seventh EP on the label, the Gruuv bosses showcase the latest evolution of their rich and diverse sound, with the dancefloor-driven quartet of hot cuts!

From their early beginnings between Ibiza and their hometown of Leeds to a near twenty-year-long career that has taken them from Space (Ibiza) to Womb (Tokyo), fabric (London) to Zouk (Singapore), UK duo Audiojack have remained and continue to prove themselves as both ever-present dancefloor hit makers, but artists that have helped carry the UK’s evolving house sound. From their initial releases on Leftroom and 2020vision through to their Crosstown Rebels debut in 2016, and then fast-forwarding to recent music on Solid Grooves, Knee Deep In Sound and their own Gruuv imprint, the pair’s unwavering passion for fresh sounds continues to burn bright. Now regulars on Damian Lazarus’ iconic imprint, serving up five EPs, numerous remixes, and their 2021 album ‘Surface Tension’ on the label to date, the end of May welcomes the duo’s latest chapter on Crosstown with their latest EP, ‘Play With My Mind’.

The skippy and vibrant ‘Play With My Mind’ opens the package with an abundance of nostalgia, channelling 90s sonics via the infectious organ melody and hooky vocals at its core, while ‘Casual Verve’ is trippy and loose while delivering a slice of driving funk to the mix. Next, ‘Connect’ provides a vocal-led, garage-dipped cut that keeps the energy levels sizzling before ‘Delirium’ closes the show with a swathe of pure dancefloor ecstasy.

SIHR: sonic manifesto by a post-anything quartet feat. multi-instrumentalists from the Mediterranean inland Sea. New folklore for a devastated planet, including Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête), Grégory Dargent (H), Tony Elieh (Karkhana) & Wassim Halal (Polyphème).

After a few concerts/screenings improvised as a duo in Cairo and Beirut, as well as for the Rencontres d’Arles, the Lille photography center and the Belgian magazine Halogénure, Dargent and Oberland have teamed up with mavericks Elieh and Halal for a puzzling cross-border manifesto. The first sonic moves of this eclectic quartet, made in a bunker studio somewhere between Paris and Berlin, urgently took the form of a quest, that of a neo-folklore for troubled times, a music seeping with many kinds of atavism and experimenting in all directions. A fertile no-man’s-land where trance and contem- plation, jazz and electronica, acoustics and electricity would merge in a stimulating mystical magma.

From the possible emergence of a Babelian language to the shared desire to rediscover music as a ceremonial act, this encounter took place over three days of improvised sound bacchanalia, the phases of which were all recorded by Benoit Bel (Zombie Zombie, Thurston Moore Group, Oi- seaux-Tempête). A hallucinated and generous testimony, SIHR is a synergy of many different worlds and many different possibilities, the sonic vision of a present conjugated in a hybrid tense and exalted by too many tangos danced on the glowing ashes of our days.

Multi-instrumentalist & photographer, Frédéric D. Oberland has been leading the Oiseaux-Tempête collective for over ten years, lying somewhere between avant-rock and free jazz, repetitive music and electronics. Founding member of the bands FOUDRE! and Le Réveil des Tropiques, he’s also perfor- ming solo and composing soundtracks for cinema and installation art. Since 2018, Oberland co-cu- rates the NAHAL Recordings imprint alongside producer Mondkopf.

Electric guitarist, oud player, composer and photographer, Grégory Dargent cultivates his musical schizophrenia and identity through improvised music, trance music, jazz, hijacked maqam, repeti- tive music, pop, electro-acoustic installations and French chanson. From L’Hijâz’Car to Babx, from Berber singer Houria Aïchi to Rachid Taha, from Trio H to Sirventés enragés, from music for images to contemporary choreography, from the most acoustic of ouds to the most nuclear of guitars, he conducts, accompanies, composes, deciphers, questions, delves, makes mistakes, bounces back, ar- ranges, orchestrates and tirelessly shares his creative passions.

Tony Elieh is one of the pioneers of experimental music in Lebanon. A founding member of the first post-rock group of post-war Lebanon, The Scrambled Eggs, he has since developed his unique elec- tric bass skills in various groups and styles of music including collaborating with in groups such as Karkhana, Calamita and Wormholes Electric. Relocated in Berlin in recent years, he has performed a solo set of heavily processed bass generated sounds.

Is Wassim Halal only a darbuka player? Maybe !? But what about his music, compositions, ideas. You can find him with Polyphème playing and co-composing popular-contemporary music with Gamelan Puspawarna, or next to the french bagpiper Erwan Keravec, with the Bey.Ler.Bey trio (w/ Laurent Clouet & Florian Demonsant) working on an improvised-balkan-already-improvised-music, with per- formers and drawers Benjamin Efrati and Diego Verastegui, with Gregory Dargent and Anil Eraslan in H, creating a new pedal generating »Random taksim«, composing his own »Poème Symphonique pour 100 youyou« or composing pieces for ensembles.

In one sense, it’s easy for artists—songwriters, specifically—to express their feelings in their work. After all, that’s what the lyrics are for! But it’s much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That’s precisely why Girl and Girl’s Sub Pop debut, Call A Doctor, feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst’s widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime’s worth of woes—mental health, the human race’s planned obsolescence if you’ve been living on this cursed rock you know what we’re getting at—across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment.

An audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record, Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, whose origins lie in James and guitarist Jayden Williams jamming in his mother’s garage in the afternoon after school. One afternoon, James’ Aunty Liss headed down to their practice space after walking her dog and asked if she could sit in on drums. “It sounded really great,” James recalls. “We begged her to stay, and she said, ‘I’ll stay until you find another drummer.’ We wore her down, and she eventually became a permanent member.”

After bassist Fraser Bell joined to round things out, Girl and Girl hit the road and began to make a name for themselves beyond the Australian bush, eventually signing to Sub Pop off the strength of word of mouth. Call A Doctor came together quickly soon after, largely recorded in marathon sessions in a two-story industrial complex over the course of two weeks. “That added to the intensity of the album,” James says about the frenzied creative process overseen by producer Burke Reid. “I can hear the stress in the record, which is good because that’s what it’s about—being tense, tied up, and in your own head.”

Call A Doctor’s eleven songs—spanning sweeping guitar epics and wry acoustic shuffles to spiky punk maneuvers and the type of raw, adoringly unvarnished indie-pop associated with legendary PacNW label K Records—are literally plucked from James’ personal history, as he reworked older recordings with newer lyrics reflecting his past struggles as well as new anxieties that emerged prior to the album’s recording. “I’ve struggled with mental health for a lot of my life,” he explains, “and I went through a particularly difficult patch when we were making the album; the band had started to get some attention, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to live up to it.”

Far from the sound of collapsing under pressure, Call A Doctor finds James and Co. stepping up with their entire collective chest. This is a record that’s so out-and-out alive that you nearly feel like you’re in the same room with Girl and Girl as you listen to it; lead single “Hello” practically bursts through the speakers, amplified by Aunty Liss’ unbelievable stickhandling duties. “‘Hello’ is all about romanticizing your own misery. Letting those deep, dark, dirty thoughts take over. Understanding that even if you could pull yourself out, you wouldn’t because the constant stress and worry is far too familiar and comfortable.”

“Mother” pogos on a spiky groove that’s reminiscent of the geographically close New Zealanders who make up the legendary Flying Nun label, while “Oh Boy” draws from the Shins’ own jangly sound, injected with James’ wonderfully nervy vocals. Then there’s Call A Doctor’s sorta-centerpiece “Maple Jean and the Anthropocene,” a five-minute epic offering a new perspective on climate change and the notion of what it means, in a personal sense, to suffer: “I live in the bushland, and I was driving home one night and hit and killed a wallaby with my car,” James recalls while discussing the song’s lyrical inspiration. “My first thought was, ‘What is the universe trying to tell me?’ No remorse, no guilt, just total self-centeredness. Which was like, Woah, you fucking psychopath! This wallaby wasn’t put on this earth to send you a message. That’s what the song is about, our egocentric species - thinking you’re the main character and that everything that happens is somehow about you.”

“This record is about an individual who’s too far in their head, trying to get out,” James continues while discussing Call A Doctor’s overall outlook—specifically the snapshot it offers of its creator. But even though this record deals with uneasy topics we all know well from within ourselves, it’s important to emphasize how teeming with life Girl and Girl’s music is. There’s a brazen, bold sense of humor to this stuff, an undeniable brightness to the darkness that makes it impossible not to be drawn in as a listener. Feeling down never sounded so goddamn good.

repress !

Following acclaimed singles from Powell, Blood Music, Shit & Shine and Prostitutes, the next release from Diagonal is a landmark. It marks both the London label's first full-length album release, and the return of abrasive and furiously funky hip-hop deconstructionists Death Comet Crew, one of the most quietly influential underground acts to emerge from the creative melting pot of 1980s New York.

Ghost Among The Crew documents the group's return to studio operations for the first time since the 80s, as well as their first ever full-length studio album. It's a remarkable trip: a consolidation of their early feral disassemblies of hip-hop and electro, but also broader in scope, chewing up and spitting out fragments of soul, jazz fusion, punk and industrial music.
Death Comet Crew were founded in New York City in 1983 by Stuart Argabright, a founder member of post-punk/industrial mavericks Ike Yard and the mind behind Dominatrix and later Black Rain. Their sound, then as now, was a singular proposition: urban in mood, exploratory, often compellingly danceable, yet confrontational. It emerged from the interweaving talents of the group's varied members: guitarist Michael Diekmann (of Ike Yard), bassist Shinichi Shimokawa (later of Black Rain) and Nick Taylor aka DJ High Priest, frequently joined by the late, great hip hop artist and graffiti writer Rammellzee. Having recorded two studio EPs - 1985's At The Marble Bar (featuring Rammellzee) and its follow-up Mystic Eyes - the group disbanded barely a year after forming. They left behind a reputation for their incendiary live performances, several recordings from which were gathered on crucial 2004 compilation This Is Riphop.
The musical climate that first birthed Death Comet Crew was one of fertile cross-pollination of styles. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the seeds of modern day urban musics - hip hop, punk and post-punk, no wave - were taking root in the streets of recession-struck New York City. Argabright recalls dancing at the downtown Mudd Club around 1980 to a bold mixture of styles, with DJs cutting from synth-pop and post-punk to funk, soul and early hip-hop: Bowie and James Brown next to Run DMC, Ultravox and Gary Numan. Indeed, the names of his New York contemporaries operating around the same time - the likes of Liquid Liquid, Run DMC, Afrika Bambaataa, Arthur Russell, ESG, Swans, Sonic Youth, Bill Laswell and more - have since been inscribed in modern music history.
With previous projects Dominatrix and Ike Yard having recently become inactive, in 1984 Argabright formed Death Comet Crew as a means of exploring new sonic avenues. He'd been experimenting with tape, recording and procesing the sounds of his surrounding environment and dialogue from films and TV. Joined by Shimokawa, Diekmann and Taylor, and using drum machines, turntables, spidery guitar and bass, the group assembled a scrambled collage of rhythms and sampled voices. Their live performances were, in Argabright's words, "aurally violent, sharp-edged, downright lacerating", hacking gleefully away at hip hop and electro's rhythmic frameworks. Rammellzee joined the group to vocal 1985 debut EP At The Marble Bar; his MC turn on highlight 'Exterior Street' is all the more remarkable for having been entirely freestyled in the studio. When Death Comet Crew reformed in 2003 for a string of live shows, he continued as an active member of the group, touring and working with them during the recording of Ghost Among The Crew, until he sadly passed away in 2010.
After reforming, Death Comet Crew began writing and recording new material. Now, following on from their just-released Galacticoast 12" through Citinite, Ghost Among The Crew - its title a homage to Rammellzee - hones the group's abrasive early experimentations while tripping into bold and astrally minded new territory. Alongside the core quartet of Argabright, Diekmann, Shimokawa and Taylor are new voices, including Rapscallion (a friend of Rammellzee's), Jessica 6/Hercules & Love Affair singer Nomi Ruiz, and Carolyn 'Honeychild' Coleman. Its eight tracks are steeped in the impulsive spirit of electric Miles and the deep space romances of Sun Ra, and possessed of an enigmatic yet undeniable pop edge. But equally they're pricked with urban paranoia and dread, traits that have long been hallmarks of Argabright's musical projects.
'Me Czar Of The Magyars' opens the album in a twist of tension like the turning of a ratchet. Its taut electroid shudder is paired with machine gunned cymbal hits and a voice telling of "wormwood and opium dens" - the sound of being teleported from everyday city streets into the astral plane, where every sensory input is heightened and the promise of danger or pleasure lurks unseen around every corner. Later, Coleman's lyrics pay tribute to Rammellzee on the sci-fi funk of 'Deep Space Woman'. 'Let The Clubs Ring' melts lounge bar organs and frazzled guitar into freakishly unstable shapes, while 'Drag Racing' matches its title, rocketing along frantically atop clattering drums. 'Moons On Titan's Seas' is halfway interlude pause for rest, like an exotic cocktail in a bar orbiting some as-yet-undiscovered new world. These varied strands are somehow all summarised in album closer 'Ignition Spark', which sets Ruiz's vocals alongside Taylor's and Argabright's. The zone the trio inhabit in this final track exists in perpetual push-pull between contemplation, memory, intrigue and violence, a decisive opening of a new chapter in Death Comet Crew's history.

As with all Diagonal releases, the initial vinyl pressing will be packaged in unique, specially designed artwork.

Zweites Album der Art-Rock-Experimentalisten Drahla aus Leeds. Aufgenommen mit Matthew Benn und Jamie Lockhart im Jahr 2023, folgt angeltape dem von der Kritik gefeierten Debüt Useless Coordinates aus dem Jahr 2019 und ist ein avantgardistisches Dokument der Ereignisse, die sich in der fünfjährigen Pause zwischen den Alben entfaltet haben. Eine Vielzahl von Veränderungen - gute und schlechte - lenkten das berufliche und persönliche Leben der Bandmitglieder in unbekannte Bahnen. Doch anstatt sich den Widrigkeiten zu ergeben, tauchen Drahla mit angeltape wieder auf. Sängerin und Gitarristin Luciel Brown, Bassist Rob Riggs und Schlagzeuger Mike Ainsley erweiterten ihren Sound mit Gitarrist Ewan Barr und klingen nun wesentlich dunkler, komplexer und konzeptioneller. Drahla beschreiten neue klangliche Wege und experimentieren dabei mehr als je zuvor mit der Form der Musik. Das berauschende Zusammenspiel von treibenden Bass-Riffs und aufgeladenen Schlagzeugmustern bildet einen fesselnden Kontrast zu Browns melodischem Sprechgesang. Die einhüllende Atmosphäre, die von dem Quartett ausgeht, wird durch die eindringliche Saxophonbegleitung des langjährigen Mitstreiters Chris Duffin noch verstärkt. Die Band beschäftigt sich mit Themen wie Trauer und Trauma, während sie gleichzeitig Momente der Sentimentalität und Unterstützung in schwierigen Zeiten zelebriert. Eine unwiderstehliche und unerschütterliche Kraft durchzieht dieses meisterhafte zweite Album. angeltape ist eine herausfordernde, tröstliche und letztlich lohnende Platte für Künstler und Publikum.

Two talents with careers spanning varying eras, yet artists positioned at the heart of Italy’s current house landscape, Alex Neri and Mennie are adding to their rich solo discographies with a series of selected works in partnership with one another. Tuscany’s Neri, co-owner of the iconic nightlife institution Tenax and label boss at Wildflower Records, stands as one of the legendary Italian names from the past 30 years, holding residencies at the likes of Pikes in Ibiza while releasing a long list of classic records since the early 90s under numerous aliases, including Kamasutra alongside Marco Baroni. A familiar name to FUSE fans, having released material via sister imprints LOCUS and INFUSE, Mennie has seen his career flourish of late, regularly touring Europe’s key venues while also holding a residency at the legendary Tenax. Here, the two build on their recent joint studio projects with a debut on FUSE for the third edition of the label’s collaborative X Series, unveiling a quartet of impactful house cuts in heavy rotation for label head honcho Siragusa.

Taking a deep dive amongst swirling synths and cosmic interludes, ‘Reality’ opens proceedings with a trippy and punchy lead cut as the duo introduce slick groove-laden drum arrangements to get things moving, while ‘Find Me’ keeps the pressure on with bumping low-ends, shuffling hats and a menacing yet captivating bass groove sure to keep dancers moving in lockstep. On the b-side, ‘Rockets’ brings luminous melodies amongst breaks-influenced percussion for a playful and dynamic production, before ‘Watch Me’ rounds things out with another all-action affair as acid-dipped and kinetically charged closer made for big moments.

96kHz - 48-bit HD Audio with digital booklet including original photography by Christopher Kayfield and liner notes by Shaun Brady.

Pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Billy Hart reunite for a second, scintillating trio date, BRIDGES, featuring original compositions by Hays and Hart with classics by Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell, The Beatles, and Milton Nascimento.

Hays Street Hart, the trio of pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street, and legendary drummer Billy Hart, recorded their acclaimed 2021 debut, ALL THINGS ARE, under less than optimal conditions. The album began life as a performance in honor of Hart’s 80th birthday in December 2020, live-streamed from an empty Smoke Jazz Club in the final weeks of that grueling pandemic year. Despite those adversities, the music they created that night was spectacular enough to convince all involved that it should be released.

Two years later, the trio has reconvened, this time fully cognizant that they were going to record an album at Sear Sound Studios in NYC. The captivating BRIDGES brilliantly spotlights the unique chemistry and shared spirit of exploration that emerged fully formed on that initial impromptu session. The title succinctly hints at some of the reasons why Hays, Street and Hart work so well together: this is a trio that bridges generations, certainly, as well as a wealth of diverse experience and inspiration. But it also sums up a mutual desire to bring people together through music.

“In this world that seems to be crumbling beneath our feet,” Hays explains, “we sense the need to make allies where there might be adversaries. On the most intimate level, interpersonally and inter-psychically we set out to overcome any number of misunderstandings and adversarial situations.”

Not that there was any antagonism to overcome within the trio itself. More than anything, Hays Street Hart is a mutual admiration society of the highest order. The esteem in which the pianist and bassist hold Billy Hart likely goes without saying. The drummer was ordained in 2022 as an NEA Jazz Master, just one of the many honors he has chalked up over a breathtaking career. He began his career with an apprenticeship under the revered vocalist Shirley Horn and went on to make notable music with such luminaries as Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, and as part of the quartet Quest featuring David Liebman and Richie Beirach.

But Hart is if anything, even more laudatory toward his younger bandmates. Street has been a member of the drummer’s stellar quartet for two decades, alongside pianist Ethan Iverson and saxophonist Mark Turner, a tenure that speaks for itself. As for Hays, Hart is quick to place the pianist in the exalted company of some of his iconic former collaborators.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have the chance to perform with Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner,” says Hart modestly. “Each generation presents their own equivalent, and Kevin is an example of the latest innovations. There was Herbie and McCoy, then it was Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, and then you have what's coming next. I think Kevin is definitely part of that continuum.”

Though Hays sticks strictly to the piano on BRIDGES, he is also an accomplished singer whose vocal instincts fuel his inventive and lyrical melodicism. Street points to those facets as key to the connection between the pianist and Hart, who has enjoyed several meaningful collaborations with vocalists.

“It always seems to me that Kevin has the capacity to sing in his mind and then accompany himself on the piano,” Street describes. “That makes for such a nice connection with Billy, who has played with and learned from so many singers. I don't even feel like we're playing as a piano trio most of the time; it feels more like a quartet.”

Those qualities are especially clear on Hays’ “Butterfly,” which opens the album. Though it’s performed here as an instrumental, the pianist has composed lyrics for the piece, and its gorgeous, song-like quality shines through. Hays also contributed the breathtaking ballad “Song for Peace,” highlighted by Hart’s gentle, embracing brushwork and Street’s sturdy, stentorian tone. The pianist’s third original, “Row Row Row,” is constructed on a twelve-tone row, but as the playful title suggests, it has none of the more stringent qualities of the serialist composers.

Hart’s stunning “Irah,” originally recorded on his quartet’s self-titled 2006 debut, is dedicated to the composer’s mother and was recorded at Street’s suggestion. The bassist also brought guitarist Bill Frisell’s reflective “Throughout” to the date, imagining Frisell’s Americana influences would resonate with the similarly inclined Hays, who approaches the tune with a harp-like beauty. Hays’ love of pop and rock music is also reflected by the inclusion of The Beatles classic “With a Little Help from My Friends.”

The trio pays tribute to the late, great Wayne Shorter with “Capricorn,” originally released on the composer’s 1969 Blue Note album SUPER NOVA and later included on the Miles Davis Quintet set WATER BABIES. Hart called Shorter one of a kind. I think of the many times I heard him excel – with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band, with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, with Weather Report. And in each case, he was innovative.”

BRIDGES closes with the title track, a dazzling piece by the great Brazilian singer and songwriter Milton Nascimento, which Hays calls “one of my favorite compositions ever, by anybody.”

BRIDGES was recorded under ideal studio conditions by a now-established trio with a weeks-long European tour under their belts. Perhaps what’s most remarkable about the album is not that Hays, Street, and Hart play so masterfully together – with three artists of their caliber, who could expect any less? – but that this second outing maintains the bold spirit of inquisitiveness and spontaneity that its predecessor naturally possessed. Credit that to a trio perpetually determined to discover new bridges worth building.

Violist, violinist and singer-songwriter Marla Hansen returns to Karaoke Kalk with "Salt", her second full-length album to date. Building upon the sonic palette the Berlin-based musician established with her debut "Dust" in 2020, "Salt" takes the delicate mixture of acoustic instruments such as viola, violin, piano and guitar combined with subtle electronics to the next level. The new album is both a remarkable departure and at the same time sheds a new yet reassuring light on Hansen's work and creativity. "Salt" features numerous collaborations with like-minded musicians and friends, e. g. producer and composer Simon Goff, The Notwist's drummer Andi Haberl and the renowned artist DM Stith.

The "Dust" has settled. After having recorded her solo debut of that name, in 2020 the world came to a grinding halt, leaving Marla Hansen left to her own devices in her adopted home of Berlin. For Hansen, who previously had lent her talent to many creative minds such as The National, Sufjan Stevens, The Hidden Cameras, Jay-Z and Ravi Coltrane, the collaborative aspect of writing and producing music had always played a crucial part in finding her own path as a solo artist.

"I started to explore synthesizers and electronic production myself," she remembers of the time when meeting other musicians in person was out of the question. "I am proud that I accomplished many of the electronic elements of the new album by myself, and otherwise laid the groundwork for the final electronic structures through my own experiments. I always wanted to record a 'big' record, one that has a lot of power and sound, and this one is 'bigger' than anything I have done so far."

"Salt" is big, indeed. The opener "Chains" is driven by a gliding bass line, bobbing 808 snares, deep chords and a mesmerizing chorus doubled by luscious strings, marking the beginning of a new chapter in her creative journey. A stark statement, both musically and lyrically. Meanwhile, the title track of the album is an almost abstract sounding ambient miniature, sketch-like, dark and haunting, showcasing Hansen's voice in a shy, brittle and fragile state. If This Mortal Coil/The Hope Blister were ever to record another album, these songs should be high up on the shortlist of tunes to pick. "The One Time" - a duet with Hansen's long-time friend DM Stith - gently meanders between a Philip Glass-inspired piece for chamber orchestra and a vocal ensemble performing on Top Of The Pops. In this range of styles and approaches, Hansen's vision is more present than ever.

For refining and finishing the songs, Hansen turned to Simon Goff, who produced the album and engineered much of the recording, merging Hansen's newly-found songwriting approach with the artistic delicacy which made her debut album an exceptional piece of work. Features include among others: Alice Dixon (Oriel Quartett) on cello, Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut) on trumpet, Benjamin Lanz (The National, Beirut) on trombone and tuba, and Miles Perkin on bass. And then there is The Notwist's Andi Haberl, who "crafted perfect drum and percussion parts to move the songs wherever they needed to go, either into their driving grooves, slow-build explosions or gentle swells of feeling."

But what are songs actually about? "The themes revolve around a feeling of being trapped. Having to stay inside during the pandemic, with all the silence and stillness coming with it. Simultaneously, I was caught up in a professional situation that was not working for me, yet it required a lot of energy and time. I was thinking a lot about how to break old habits and patterns. Patterns in my life, patterns I saw my friends and loved-ones stuck in. There are a lot of ways that people can be trapped, and breaking out of that requires a lot of courage and energy - on all levels. The title 'Salt' seemed to fit, ocean themes showed up naturally in some of the songs, and I thought often about the quote: 'The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.' Maybe I was just dreaming of the ocean, since it was inaccessible for the first time! But I wanted a cure for this feeling of being trapped, in a time of uncertainty and anxiety, salt as a remedy seemed to have some truth in it: sweat, tears or the sea."

Perseverance and the urge for freedom prevailed in the end. "Salt" is a bold artistic achievement, with songs as big as the biggest waves imaginable. With melodies as alluring as the most comfortable breezes. Perfect from start to finish.

Dire Straits never made a big to-do about its final run. In classic understated British fashion, the band simply let its music speak for itself. And how. Originally released in September 1991, On Every Street became the group's swan song – a lasting testament to the influence, musicianship, and integrity of an ensemble whose merit has never been tainted by cash-grab reunions or farewell treks. It remains an essential part of the Dire Straits catalog and a blueprint of the distinctive U.K. roots rock the collective played for its 15-year career.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in gatefold packaging, and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP set of On Every Street presents the album like it has always been meant to be experienced: in reference-grade audiophile sound. Recorded at AIR Studios in London and produced by Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler, it features all of the band's sonic hallmarks – wide instrumental separation, visceral textures, seemingly limitless air, broad soundstages, atmospherics that you can almost reach out and feel. Each element is made more vibrant, physical, and lifelike on this collectible reissue, which marks the first time this 60-minute work has been available at 45RPM speed.

Afforded generous groove space and black backgrounds, the songs from On Every Street burst with nuanced details and vibrant colors. Dire Straits' playing appears to float, their intricate performances organized amid hypnotic, fluid, three-dimensional arrangements. Mobile Fidelity's definitive-sounding set also brings into transparent view Knopfler's finely sculpted guitar lines, expressive tones, and laid-back vocals – as well as the balanced accompaniment from his band mates. Here's a record on which you can hear the full blossom and decay of individual notes, and imagine the size and shape of the studio. It is in every regard a demonstration disc. And it happens to be filled with timeless fare.

Remarkably, On Every Street almost never came to light. Dire Straits initially dissolved in September 1988 after touring behind its blockbuster Brothers in Arms and suffering the departure of two members. At the time, Knopfler professed his desire to work on solo material; bassist John Illsley also explored side projects. But Knopfler's decision in 1989 to form the country-leaning Notting Hillbillies reignited a spark to reconvene his primary band and craft a fresh batch of songs. Six years removed from Brothers in Arms, Knopfler, Illsley, keyboardist Alan Clark, and keyboardist Guy Fletcher teamed with A-list session pros – steel guitarist Paul Franklin, percussionist Danny Cummings, saxophonist Chris White, guitarist Phil Palmer included – to create what still stands as an unforgettable farewell.

The platinum record brings the band full circle in that it returns Dire Straits to a quartet formation; finds the group refreshingly out of step with the era's prevailing trends; and sees Knopfler and Co. knocking out song after song with the deceptive ease of a punter tossing back a pint at a pub. That subtle cool, clever poise, and innate control – signature traits that no other band ever matched – dominate On Every Street. Knopfler's clean, virtuosic six-string escapades unfurl with dizzying melodicism and economical efficiency. Led by his winding fills and focused solos, Dire Straits traverse a hybrid landscape of rock, jazz, country, boogie, blues, and pop strains with near-faultless prowess.

More than any other entry in the group's oeuvre, On Every Street welcomes quick detours down back alleys and into the depths of human souls. What makes it more brilliant is its staunch refusal to cater to commercial expectations or take advantage of prior successes; every passage feels true, every measure echoed in the service of song. It's evident in the humorous satire of "Heavy Fuel," closeted desperation of the witty "Calling Elvis," and shake-and-bake bounce of "The Bug." It pours from the album's darker corners, as on the high-and-lonesome melancholy of the title track and bruised emotionalism of "When It Comes to You."

Hinting at the open-minded approaches and boundless curiosity he'd embrace as a solo artist, Knopfler doesn't limit himself when it comes to style or subject matter. Look no further than "You and Your Friend," a shuffle whose all-inclusive lyrics encourage an array of interpretative meanings. Another of the album's deep cuts, "Iron Hand," comes on as one of the band's most memorable moments – the narrative addressing the abuses of power at the 1984 Battle of Orgreave during the U.K. miners' strike. Given cinematic heft by the expert production, the true-fiction account puts into perspective the richness, poetry, and depth of On Every Street.

"Every victory has a taste that's bittersweet," sings Knopfler on the title track. At least that bittersweetness seldom sounded so damn good on record.